To Marry an English Lord

From the Gilded Age until 1914, more than 100 American heiresses invaded Britannia and swapped dollars for titles - just like Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham, the first of the Downton Abbey characters Julian Fellowes was inspired to create after reading To Marry An English Lord. Filled with vivid personalities, gossipy anecdotes, grand houses, and a wealth of period details-plus quotes and the finer points of Victorian and Edwardian etiquette - To Marry An English Lord is social history at its liveliest and most accessible.

How to Be a Tudor: A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Tudor Life

On the heels of her triumphant How to Be a Victorian, Ruth Goodman travels even further back in English history to the era closest to her heart, the dramatic period from the crowning of Henry VII to the death of Elizabeth I. Drawing on her own adventures living in re-created Tudor conditions, Goodman serves as our intrepid guide to 16th-century living. Proceeding from daybreak to bedtime, this charming, illustrative work celebrates the ordinary lives of those who labored through the era.

The Art of the English Murder: From Jack the Ripper and Sherlock Holmes to Agatha Christie and Alfred Hitchcock

In The Art of the English Murder, Lucy Worsley explores this phenomenon in forensic detail, revisiting notorious crimes like the Ratcliff Highway Murders, which caused a nationwide panic in the early 19th century, and the case of Frederick and Maria Manning, the suburban couple who were hanged after killing Maria's lover and burying him under their kitchen floor. Our fascination with crimes like these became a form of national entertainment, inspiring novels and plays, prose and paintings, poetry and true-crime journalism.

The Private Lives of the Tudors: Uncovering the Secrets of Britain's Greatest Dynasty

The Tudor monarchs were constantly surrounded by an army of attendants, courtiers and ministers. Even in their most private moments, they were accompanied by a servant specifically appointed for the task. A groom of the stool would stand patiently by as Henry VIII performed his daily purges, and when Elizabeth I retired for the evening, one of her female servants would sleep at the end of her bed. These attendants knew the truth behind the glamorous exterior.

The Mistresses of Cliveden: Three Centuries of Scandal, Power, and Intrigue in an English Stately Home

Overlooking the Thames, the Cliveden mansion is flanked by two wings and surrounded by lavish gardens. Throughout its storied history, Cliveden has been a setting for misbehavior, intrigue, and passion - from its salacious, deadly beginnings in the 17th century to the 1960s Profumo affair, the sex scandal that toppled the British government. Now, in this immersive chronicle, the manor's current mistress, Natalie Livingstone, opens the doors to this prominent house and lets the walls do the talking.

The Sisters of Versailles: Mistresses of Versailles Series # 1

Set against the lavish backdrop of the French Court in the early years of the 18th century, The Sisters of Versailles is the extraordinary tale of the five Nesle sisters - Louise, Pauline, Diane, Hortense, and Marie-Anne - four of whom became mistresses to King Louis XV. Their scandalous story is stranger than fiction but true in every shocking, amusing, and heartbreaking detail.Court intriguers are beginning to sense that young King Louis XV, after seven years of marriage, is tiring of his Polish wife.

Bertie: A Life of Edward VII

Entertaining and different, this is an enjoyable study of a flawed yet characterful Prince of Wales seen through the eyes of the women in his life. Edward Vll, who gave his name to the Edwardian Age and died in 1911, was King of England for the final 10 years of his life. He was 59 when at last he came to the throne. Known as Bertie, the eldest son of Victoria and Albert, he was bullied by both his parents.

Queen Anne: The Politics of Passion

Queen Anne ascended the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland in 1702. By the end of her comparatively short 12-year reign, Britain had emerged as a great power. But while the queen's military was performing dazzling exploits on the continent, her own attention rested on a more intimate conflict: the female friendship on which her happiness had for decades depended and which became, for her, a source of utter torment.

Prince of Pleasure: The Prince of Wales and the Making of the Regency

Described by the Duke of Wellington as "the most extraordinary compound of talent, wit, buffoonery, obstinacy and good feeling that I ever saw in one character in my life", George Augustus Frederick, Prince of Wales, later George IV, was a highly controversial figure. He courted both Whigs and Tories in his attempts to establish the Regency during the "madness" of his father, George III.

Servants: A Downstairs History of Britain from the Nineteenth Century to Modern Times

From the immense staff running a lavish Edwardian estate and the lonely maid-of-all-work cooking in a cramped middle-class house to the poor child doing chores in a slightly less poor household, servants were essential to the British way of life. They were hired not only for their skills but also to demonstrate the social standing of their employers - even as they were required to tread softly and blend into the background. More than simply the laboring class serving the upper crust - as popular culture would have us believe - they were a diverse group that shaped and witnessed major changes in the modern home, family, and social order.

The Rival Queens: Catherine de' Medici, Her Daughter Marguerite de Valois, and the Betrayal That Ignited a Kingdom

Catherine de' Medici was a ruthless pragmatist and powerbroker who dominated the throne for 30 years. Her youngest daughter, Marguerite, the glamorous "Queen Margot," was a passionate free spirit, the only adversary whom her mother could neither intimidate nor control.

Fortune's Children: The Fall of the House of Vanderbilt

Written by descendant Arthur T. Vanderbilt II, Fortune's Children traces the dramatic and amazingly colorful history of this great American family, from the rise of industrialist and philanthropist Cornelius Vanderbilt to the fall of his progeny - wild spendthrifts whose profligacy bankrupted a vast inheritance.

The Autumn Throne

England, 1176. Imprisoned by her husband, King Henry II, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of England, refuses to let her powerful husband bully her into submission, even as he forces her away from her children and her birthright. Freed only by Henry's death, Eleanor becomes dowager Queen of England. But the competition for land and power that Henry stirred up among his sons has intensified to a dangerous rivalry.

Black Diamonds: The Downfall of an Aristocratic Dynasty and the Fifty Years That Changed England

When the sixth Earl Fitzwilliam died in 1902, he left behind the second largest estate in 20th-century England, valued at more than three billion dollars in today's money - a lifeline to the tens of thousands of people who worked either in the family's coal mines or on their expansive estate. The earl also left behind four sons, and the family line seemed assured. But was it?

Julian Fellowes's Belgravia

Julian Fellowes's Belgravia is the story of a secret. A secret that unravels behind the porticoed doors of London's grandest postcode. Set in the 1840s, when the upper echelons of society began to rub shoulders with the emerging industrial nouveau riche, Belgravia is peopled by a rich cast of characters. But the story begins on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. At the Duchess of Richmond's new legendary ball, one family's life will change forever.

The Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England

Organized as a travel guide for the time-hopping tourist, The Time-Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England is an entertaining popular history with a twist. Historian Ian Mortimer reveals in delightful (and occasionally disturbing) detail how the streets and homes of 16th century looked, sounded, and smelled for both peasants and for royals; what people wore and ate; how they were punished for crimes and treated for diseases; and the complex and contradictory Elizabethan attitudes toward violence, class, sex, and religion.

A compilation of essays from the English Historical Fiction Authors blog, this book provides a wealth of historical information from Roman Britain to early 20th-century England. Over 50 different authors share hundreds of real life stories and tantalizing tidbits discovered while doing research for their own historical novels.

The Victoria Letters: The Official Companion to the ITV Victoria Series

The official companion to ITV's hotly anticipated new drama, The Victoria Letters delves into the private writings of the young Queen Victoria, painting a vivid picture of the personal life of one of England's greatest monarchs. From the producers of Poldark and Endeavour, ITV's Victoria follows the early years of the young Queen's reign, based closely on Victoria's own letters and journals.

A Brief History of Life in Victorian Britain

The Victorian era has dominated the popular imagination like no other period, but these myths and stories also give a very distorted view of the 19th century. The early Victorians were much stranger than we usually imagine, and their world would have felt very different from our own. It was only during the long reign of the Queen that a modern society emerged in unexpected ways.

The Glitter and the Gold: The American Duchess - In Her Own Words

Consuelo Vanderbilt was young, beautiful and the heir to a vast family fortune. She was also deeply in love with an American suitor when her mother chose instead for her to fulfill her social ambitions and marry an English Duke. Leaving her life in America, she came to England as the Duchess of Marlborough in 1895 and took up residence in her new home: Blenheim Palace. The ninth Duchess gives unique first-hand insight into life at the very pinnacle of English society in the Edwardian era.

Princesses Behaving Badly: Real Stories from History Without the Fairy-Tale Endings

You think you know her story. You've read the Brothers Grimm, you've watched the Disney cartoons, you cheered as these virtuous women lived happily ever after. But the lives of real princesses couldn't be more different. Sure, many were graceful and benevolent leaders - but just as many were ruthless in their quest for power, and all of them had skeletons rattling in their royal closets.

The Accidental Empress

The year is 1853, and the Habsburgs are Europe's most powerful ruling family. With his empire stretching from Austria to Russia, from Germany to Italy, Emperor Franz Joseph is young, rich, and ready to marry.

Game of Crowns: Elizabeth, Camilla, Kate, and the Throne

One has been famous longer than anyone on the planet - a wily stateswoman and an enduring symbol of a fading institution. One is the great-granddaughter of a king's mistress and a celebrated homewrecker who survived a firestorm of scorn to marry her lover and replace her archrival, a beloved 20th-century figure. One is a beautiful commoner, the university-educated daughter of a self-made entrepreneur, a fashion idol, and wife and mother to two future kings.

Lady Margaret says:"A Well Reasoned Vision of the Future of the British Monarchy"

The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century

Imagine you could travel back to the 14th century. What would you see? What would you smell? More to the point, where are you going to stay? And what are you going to eat? Ian Mortimer shows us that the past is not just something to be studied; it is also something to be lived. He sets out to explain what life was like in the most immediate way, through taking you to the Middle Ages. The result is the most astonishing social history book you are ever likely to read: evolutionary in its concept, informative and entertaining in its detail.

Publisher's Summary

Kensington Palace is now most famous as the former home of Diana, Princess of Wales, but the palace's glory days came between 1714 and 1760, during the reigns of George I and II. In the 18th century, this palace was a world of skullduggery, intrigue, politicking, etiquette, wigs, and beauty spots, where fans whistled open like switchblades and unusual people were kept as curiosities. Lucy Worsley's The Courtiers charts the trajectory of the fantastically quarrelsome Hanovers and the last great gasp of British court life.

Structured around the paintings of courtiers and servants that line the walls of the King's Staircase of Kensington Palace - paintings you can see at the palace today - The Courtiers goes behind closed doors to meet a pushy young painter, a maid of honor with a secret marriage, a vice chamberlain with many vices, a bedchamber woman with a violent husband, two aging royal mistresses, and many more. The result is an indelible portrait of court life leading up to the famous reign of George III, and a feast for both Anglophiles and lovers of history and royalty.

This book is the history of an environment, rather than a traditional history focused on one person or series of events. As such it was harder to listen to (and possibly harder to write). Probably if I'd bought the book instead of listening to it, images would have grounded the story more for me - hey, Audible, why don't you start including .pdfs of the pictures with each purchase? Anyhow I enjoyed it very much even though it was complex.

The Georges are not my favorite monarchs in British history so I was unsure as to whether I would enjoy this audiobook. I am very glad that I took the chance and used my credit. The author makes the time period come alive through the lives of the men and women who peopled the Georgian courts. I listened late into the night to finish it and ended up with tears streaming down my face at the death of one of the royal family members. Well written and narrated.

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Heather Wilds' rendition of this gossipy history-lite book. There are lots of quotations in the book, and Wilds did an excellent job with a variety of voices -- from German-accented Kings to serving maids.

I like Lucy Worsley's breezy writing style; her research is decidedly un-breezy however. She is the real deal. But don't expect to hear much about diplomacy or wars; as the title implies, this isn't that kind of history.

My knowledge of 18th century European history is inadequate, except as events in Europe may have affected the American colonies. Thus, I knew very little about the reigns of George I and George II. (Now I need to find a good one-volume about George III, who I know was not truly the tyrant that I was taught about.)

Although I was familiar with French court life, I had no idea that the early Georgian court was so similarly stuffy and formal. The entire daily dressing routine just sounds ludicrous, although it was deadly important to the courtiers. Court life sounds boring and miserable for everyone involved, including even the King and Queen. There was plenty of hanky-panky, and both kings had semi-official mistresses who wielded a degree of power.

The palaces were a far cry from what we imagine -- at times cramped, drafty, damp, and dirty. But there was also splendor, and Worsley's discussion of William Kent's work at Kensington Palace is fascinating.

I enjoy reading historical romances set in this period, and what I learned from this book will just add to my ability to imagine this world that was so dramatically different from our own.

This book certainly captures the good, the bad, and the ugly of court life under the early Georgian kings. Lucy Worsley has an infectious enthusiasm for the personal details of history (obvious if you've seen any of her BBC presentations) and is able to synthesize historical documents into several well-rounded and surprisingly sympathetic portraits of the aristocrats and royals of the period.

After watching every documentary and history special hosted/presented by Lucy Worsley, this book was the icing on the tea cakes (do the they have icing on tea cakes?!).. I was able to hear her voice quoting George II speaking to his trops, see her modeling the whale bone hoops and tasting the wonderful plates eaten in KP. Thank you again Lucy for bringing your brand of humor and spark to the backstabbing underbelly of royal court life.

The Courtiers provides an interesting overview of the age, though the chronology hops around as individual storylines play themselves out. Pleasantly, each of the characters' humanity comes across, and the book reads as well researched without feeling dry. The narration is enjoyable, with attention to characterizing each of the first-person quotations.

This work was work. It seems that much history and preparation went into the book, which I appreciate. However, it took alot of effort to stick with the story, remember characters, and stay on top of it all while I walk the dog or cook. I often had to rewind the book to catch words or phrases that I could not hear clearly. I gave up on the book, and returned it.